As I am still several tournaments behind, this post will bring things up to date. The seventh London Classic was the strongest yet, it was quite an experience to play such an awesome 10 player event. Due to Grand Prix rules I got an extra Black, and the pairings decided I would start with two…

I made my first visit to Macedonia for the European Club Cup , it was an interesting place to visit, but unfortunately SOCAR weren’t able to defend their title and we lost 3.5-2.5 to the other powerhouse team Siberia in round 5; which unsurprisingly proved decisive. Five wins and a last round draw in the…

I had a hectic day prior to the tournament, playing a simul in the afternoon, where I vanquished all but organiser Alan Ormsby – his only mistake was to offer a draw in the final position! Then in the evening the chess poker began, like last year I didn’t fare well in the blitz section…

The World Cup is often treated as a necessary step to enable a city to host the Chess Olympiad, but Baku really made an effort with this one – overall it was the best of all the World Cups I have taken part in. I was picked up by a London taxi with an advert…

Biel is certainly a pleasant place to be in the end of July, particularly during a spell of warm weather at the start of the tournament. This was a trip down memory lane for me, I have played in Biel a couple of times before, but in the distant past, I remember my first appearance…

After Baden my schedule was not too busy, so a surprise last minute call up to the super tournament in Shamkir was welcome. However, I had a long standing commitment to play the final Bundesliga weekend so a hectic few days of travelling ensued. I went Taunton-Baden on Friday, playing 2 games over the weekend,…

The GRENKE Chess Classic began directly after the first February Bundesliga weekend, so after halving out two games, including missing a nice chance against Anish Giri, Jan Gustafsson who was commentator in chief caught a train with me for the five and a half hour trip from Emsdetten to Baden. I played well in parts,…

The London Classic switched formats again, one considerable upside was the new large open rapidplay event. Despite some uneven play and some lucky escapes I began with 5.5/6 but got confused about the round times and arrived late for my next rather tough assignment with Hikaru Nakamura, and didn’t put up much resistance. I also…

After a flight from one of the smallest airports I have flown from, Cheltenham, I arrived in Douglas, it is well suited to a chess event – everything is nearby and weather permitting there is good potential for walks along the pretty seafront. Pokerstars are the main sponsor of the tournament which began with a…

Venues for the EuroCup are often off the beaten track, so it was good to have the event in the spectacular city of Bilbao; the playing hall was very decent and as a bonus also hosted the four player Bilbao Masters alongside. However the other organization was surprisingly haphazard, with problems announcing pairings, and entering…

Just after I booked my ticket for this event, the organisers threatened to cancel it; later FIDE officials were menacing the same. Although this was obviously ridiculous behaviour by both parties so close to the Olympiad, it did a good job of expectation management for the event. The proximity of the airport, and most accommodation…

As I have gotten somewhat behind with the website I thought I would write something about current events before returning to the distant past. We have been on holiday in the Florida Keys for a while now and had the chance to catch some of the annual events, which for us are rare. The Blues…

I hadn’t played for a while before the event, but had done some prep at home and played a few successful training games. The tournament wasn’t a disaster but was rather frustrating, as it seemed a long list of missed opportunities, but some of them weren’t easy to spot, at least for me!

Francis Best and Michael Bukojemski did a fine job, creating a chess filled day beginning with a blitz tournament before I began my lecture. The original proposal was that I would show my games with Andreikin and Caruana from last year’s Dortmund event, but I was a bit concerned that 2 Berlin variations where the…

I made my Bundesliga debut this season in the March weekend. My teammates had been doing excellent work in my absence and we have a perfect record heading into the final weekend. On Sunday morning I played Luke McShane again, we seem to have played quite often recently despite his work commitments. It was another…

Gibraltar is always noteable for the special events put together during the tournament, a spectacular highlight this year was the visit to St. Michael’s Cave after the first round, I had visited the caves before but sightseeing on a wet day with the water dripping though the cracks couldn’t compare to the dinner hosted by…

The London Classic began with some exhibition games: the Pro Am event in the morning was won by Matthew Sadler and Daniel Lindner from Barclays. As it coincided with the very welcome BarcIaycard sponsorship deal with Chess in Schools and Communities this seemed appropriate. This tremendous achievement was a fitting reward for the work Malcolm…

Until Bilbao I don’t think I had played a 4 player double round event in my life, but less than a week later I was starting a second.The traditional Univé tournament in Hoogoveen was very welcoming, a impressive mix of old and new, one nice touch was the traditional wooden old style demonstration boards in…

The European Team Championship competition was held in a pleasant hotel in the centre of Warsaw, the organisers made a good job of airport transfers, providing reliable internet access and decent meals and playing conditions. The chess side of things was less smoothly run, it was hard to ascertain the point of metal detectors at…

I enjoyed my first visit to Bilbao, a beautiful city with excellent views and great food. We took the opportunity to check out the Guggenheim Museum before catching our flight home. The tournament was intense with six games in a row at the challenging time limit of 40 moves in 90 minutes with no increment….

Post History

Post History

Search for:

About

Michael Adams was born in Cornwall on 17 November 1971. He became a Grandmaster at the age of 17 and has been a professional chess player for over 20 years. In 2006 he began writing a chess column in the Saturday Telegraph Weekend section.